INDIANAPOLIS — It was a tale of two primetime performances this weekend in the NFL. On Saturday, the Indianapolis Colts put on an impressive performance, taking down the New England Patriots, who came in riding a seven-game win streak.
Meanwhile, on Sunday night, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers were shutout by the New Orleans Saints, losing 9-0.
Brady was the overwhelming NFL MVP favorite going into the weekend. Now, some things have changed.
While oddsmakers over at BetOnline.ag still have Brady leading the way, his odds have shifted dramatically, opening up the race.
After his 170-yard rushing performance with a game-clinching touchdown on Saturday night, Colts running back Jonathan Taylor is now the third favorite according to BetOnline.ag’s odds, behind Brady and Aaron Rodgers. That puts him ahead of quarterbacks like Patrick Mahomes, Matthew Stafford and Josh Allen.
Last week, Taylor’s odds were +1800 to win the award that has been given to a quarterback for 14-straight years. Now, his odds sit at +700, a substantial jump from a week.
The last time a running back won MVP was LaDainian Tomlinson in 2006, who won it a year after Seahawks running back Shaun Alexander won it.
Locked On Colts podcast host Evan Sidery looked at two of the top rushing performances over the last decade, in Derrick Henry’s 2020 campaign and Adrian Peterson’s 2012 campaign, and showed just how impressive Taylor has been through 14 games thus far.
“Jonathan Taylor, what can you say about him at this point? I think he’s the runaway offensive player of the year, I think he legitimately has a case for MVP at this point,” Locked On Colts host Evan Sidery said on Monday’s Locked On NFL podcast. “I think he’s definitely in the top three, just the way he continues to be the lifeline for this Colts team.”
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But, as we know, this is a quarterback’s award now. Derrick Henry rushed for over 2,000 yards last season and didn’t get a single MVP vote.
But Sidery says Taylor’s off-the-charts stats, plus the way he’s created wins and a playoff push for this Colts team means he should be seriously considered.
“This guy’s only 22 years old, he’s on pace for over 2,200 yards and over 23 touchdowns this year, just amazing numbers to put up as a running back,” Sidery said on Locked On NFL. “And, the way he’s carried this team to the playoffs, they were 0-3 to start the season, then 1-4. Now they’re 8-6 and could win out the rest of the way. It’s really incredible to see what Jonathan Taylor’s done. 19 touchdowns in the last 11 games.’
As we wrote last week, it would take some poor performances for Tom Brady to let someone else in to possibly win the MVP and we got just that on Sunday night.
Brady was shutout for the first time in 255 consecutive career games, the first since 2006. He completed just 54% of his passes, threw an interception, lost a fumble and took four sacks.
In that article, though, we didn’t even consider any dark horse candidates besides quarterbacks, with the recent history of the award. But now, with oddsmaker’s giving serious respect to Taylor now, he could potentially make enough noise to at least garner some MVP votes.
The Colts are now 8-6 after winning five of their last six. They’re now just 1.5 games behind the Tennessee Titans for the AFC South lead.
Indianapolis has a chance to make another big statement next week as they take on the Arizona Cardinals in Arizona on Christmas Day.
Taylor has been a star in four primetime games this season with over 600 yards and six touchdowns. He’s going to get a chance to build on that in primetime on Saturday.
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